Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The cruelty of nature

Today is a hard day at our farm. Tiger passed away.

Tiger was the runt of the litter and has always acted like she was moving in slow motion. I worried her heart was not working right because she seemed to breathe in a belabored way. I also noticed she seemed to lack survival instincts. For example when Zack would run around, Fluffy would move out of Zack's way, Tiger never did, she just sat there. We also had trouble getting Tiger to eat, and she was very very thin.

This morning when I went to the barn she was having a difficult time moving. I found her snuggled up in the cage in a warm blanket, but while I was feeding the alpacas she dragged herself over to me. She had so much difficulty I was concerned she was dying. I took her home to feed her kitten milk through a dropper. I got some milk into her, but while I was rocking her after feeding her, she passed away. Nature was cruel to her. She was not born with what she needed in order to survive. The kids will be very sad, as will we all.

Oak Haven Alpacas, LLC, & Oak Haven Sheep, LLC

The Adventure of a Lifetime

Our farming adventure began with the purchase of 3 alpacas in the fall of 2007. This eventually grew to an alpaca farm that birthed 23 cria. While we averaged 20 alpacas on a farm at any given time, we hit a peek of over 30 alpacas. We were involved in every aspect of alpaca farming: from breeding decisions, birthing, to attending alpaca shows, and shearing our own alpacas along with making product from their luscious fiber (hand spinning yarn and knitting product). We participated in 24 alpaca shows, and became very involved in the alpaca community.

In 2013 we added hair sheep to our farm.

Throughout this process we continued to tweak and revise our business plan. Our business plan evolved over time, and in 2013 it became clear that our goal was to raise grass fed animals for human consumption. While the initial plan was for this to go along side of alpaca farming, we slowly came to the conclusion our adventure was going to take us somewhere else.

In 2013 we began to sell off our alpaca herd to begin our new adventure with grass fed sheep and cattle.

Our adventure is still unfolding, so please, join us in our adventure of a lifetime as our journey unfolds.